25 years ago: KU experiences surge in foreign language enrollments

Kansas University was having a little trouble keeping up with a sharp increase in foreign language course enrollments, university administrators reported today. "Twelve to 15 years ago we almost had to arm wrestle students to get them to take a foreign language," said James Carothers, associate dean of students. "Now that's not a problem." Enrollment in introductory courses in almost every KU language department had increased significantly over the previous year's figures, a trend that some attributed partly to the United States' growing trade with other countries and improved relations with China and the Soviet Union. Even Latin classes had attracted 20 percent more students than the previous fall. Budgetary constraints had kept the number of faculty nearly the same over the past five years, so the teaching of the introductory courses was being largely handled by graduate teaching students.